VTP*^^ - 



DECE&iBBB 12, 1912. 



The Florists^ Review 



45 



SWEET PEAS UNDER OIASS. 



[An extract from a bulletin issued by the 

 Cornell Experiment Station, at Ithaca, N. Y., 

 where the trial grounds of the American 

 Sweet Pea Society are Iqpated.] 



Winter-flowering sweet peas grow six 

 to ten or more feet high, and if they 

 are to attain their full development a 

 house with this amount of head room is 

 required. They also need all the light 

 they can get, as the lighter the house, 

 the more blooms there will be. Low or 

 dark houses are not practicable. 



Sweet peas may be grown on benches, 

 but solid beds are better, since the 

 plants require a deep, moist, cool soil. 

 The roots should be given an opportu- 

 nity to go down, by properly preparing 

 the soil two or three feet in depth. 

 With this depth of prepared soil it is 

 imperative that the beds have go£>d 

 drainage, for oversaturation is detri- 

 mental to the young plants and any ten- 

 dency to keep them in this state brings 

 on sourness, which is fatal to sweet 

 peas. Having the beds raised at least 

 one foot above the walks will assist in 

 keeping the soil uniformly sweet. 



Preparing the Beds. 



When planning to grow sweet peas 

 under glass in solid beds, the house 

 should be cleared as early as possible. 

 Trench the soil two feet deep. If the 



Sweet Peas oiCW* Girtis, Iroodequoit,N.Y. 



beds have been manured annually, the 

 bottom soil may be brought to the sur- 

 face. In new houses, in case the beds 

 are to be raised a foot, trench the soil 

 eighteen to twenty-four inches deep if 

 it is a good loam; if not, remove the 

 soil and fill the beds with good soil. 

 This gives an additional foot of loos- 

 ened soil when the bed is full, but it is 

 needed for additional drainage. In 

 turning this original soil in a new bed, 

 apply a heavy coat of good, decomposed 

 cow manure in the trench. Then spread 

 on top a 3-inch coat of manure and fill 

 in with the prepared soil. In the old 

 beds, put a 3-inch layer of manure in 

 the bottom of the trench and another 

 about a foot below the top. The soil 

 should remain thus until about the 

 time for sowing; if a month or more 

 intervenes, it is much better. At this 

 time fork over the top layer one foot 

 deep, which mixes the upper layer of 

 manure with the surface soil. 



While good crops of sweet peas may 

 be grown on benches, yet they require 

 more care than when in beds. The 

 sweet pea is frequently grown as a crop 

 to succeed chrysanthemums, particular- 

 ly by those florists who do not devote 

 a great amount of space to pot plants. 

 In order to have flowers for Christmas, 

 the early chrysanthemums should be 

 cleared from the house by October 20 

 and the space filled with good sweet 

 pea plants transplanted from pots. 



The Seed. 



Only good, streng-germinating seed 

 should be used, and the best for the 

 purpose is the outdoor-grown stock of 

 this type. If the grower raises his own 

 seed for the earliest planting, that from 

 outdoor fall-sown plants is preferable; 

 otherwise it will always pay to pur- 

 *chase stock from the specialists who 

 produce seed under California condi- 

 tions. Seed procured near the end of 

 the season from exhausted greenhouse- 

 grown plants often germinates poorly 

 or produces weak plants. Sometimes, 

 even though the seedlings start ofif fair- 

 ly well, they later exhibit constitutional 

 weakness. 



If the steam pipes are on the side 

 walls, plant the first row of seeds five 

 feet from them. If the rows run east 

 and west, plant the others five feet 

 apart; if the rows run north and south, 

 space them three feet apart. Make the 

 drills one or one and a half inch deep, 

 and drop the seeds one to one and a 

 half inch apart. Cover the depth of 

 the drill, and keep the surface level. 



Sowing. 



The winter-flowering varieties may 

 be sown in the beds or benches where 

 they ajre to stand, or they may be sown 

 in pots. The former method gives the 

 better results. A day or two before 

 planting, the beds should be thoroughly 



saturated with water; William Sim, the 

 most extensive grower, advises a strong 

 dose of liquid manure instead. As soon 

 as the top has dried off so as to be in 

 a good, friable condition, plant the seed. 

 One large grower sows the seed in flats 

 or benches, in sand, transplanting the 

 seedlings as soon as the upper side root 

 is one-half inch long. Two plants are 

 placed in each 2V^-inch pot. These are 

 planted, four pots to one foot of row, 

 in the greenhouse. The varieties with 

 white seeds are best sown in sand; or, 

 as Mr. Zvolanek advises, soak the seeds 

 for ten hours in water, scatter in 

 flats, and allow to remain for two days 

 or until the seeds begin to swell. The 

 seeds may then be sown in moderately 

 dry soil in the same way as other varie- 

 ties. The white-seeded varieties, more 

 than any others, require careful atten- 

 tion in the watering. 



Watering. 



If the soil has been saturated before 

 planting, no more water should be ap- 



Swe«t Peai of C. W. Curtis, IrondequoitJ^.Y. 



plied for perhaps a week, or only when 

 the soil is no longer moist three inches 

 below the surface. When a thorough 

 watering is not applied first, and the 

 seed is sown and watered in, as a rule 

 not enough water is given to saturate 

 the soil deeply. The result is that the 

 plant confines its root area to this shal- 

 low liufist layer and does not root deefn 

 ly. It^lheref ore suffers from jjjglldmlUHj 

 and any lack of moisture is followed by 

 a check from which it never recovers. 

 On the other hand, if the preparatory 

 watering is given and water withheld 

 until there is need of it, the roots strike 

 downward into moist and cooler soil. 



